The 100 Best African Albums (According To Our Readers)
Browse through this winding sonic trip that includes Afrobeats, jazz, rumba, highlife, hip-hop and many other classics.
Earlier this year, Apple Music curated their 100 best albums list. It made the news for the grandiosity of their ambition, but also for how it focused on North American and European music, without highlighting many African contributions.
We asked ourselves: what should a top 100 album list look like? What genres and artists should be given priority and why? These questions made it clear to us that judging music is always a subjective activity. With that in mind, we gave the power to our readers in trying to gauge what a 100 Best African Albums of All-Time list would look like, asking them to comment on our social media callout.
From there we gathered the albums with the most mentions and collected them in the list that follows below. We provide blurbs to fifteen of the albums — this doesn’t account for the best among them — but rather seeks to showcase the variety in the list. No countries are represented twice in our blurbs and the albums chosen work in service of the overall list.
Here are the 100 best African albums ever, as chosen by OkayAfrica readers.
Sun-El Musician – ‘Africa to the World’ [South Africa]
On his debut studio album, Sun-El Musician called forth the brilliance of his impeccable sonic world. That soundscape often drew from electronic music, but with flourishes that are so original that every song shines with thought and feeling. It’s a depiction of the soulful side of African music, with a composer at its heart who understands the continent’s sonic history but blazes farther, farther to an almost dreamy landscape. A stellar offering, a mesmerizing and nuanced journey.
Orchestra Baobab – ‘Pirates Choice’ [Senegal]
History passes through the sonic prism of this record. Suffused in the grainy, jazz-inflected sound of the rumba, it’s a tender album with no copy. The band’s formation in Senegal is a myth of its own, spawned when the Baobab Club opened in Dakar and lured then-established members of the rival Star Band to form their in-house players. The mastery is apparent on Pirates Choice: arranged precisely, it’s a progressively moving album that dazzles to the end.
El Masreyeen – ‘Banat Keteer’ [Egypt]
In the 1970s, El Masyereen arose to revolutionize Egyptian music. Their formation was inspired by similar bands popping everywhere, especially in the West, but the music shunned out-facing influences, rather propelling themes that related to everyday life around them. Often sung in Arabic, the songs in this album possess an unassuming quality, minimalist and cool. It’s an album suited to introspection and quietly dramatic moments.
Burna Boy – ‘African Giant’ [Nigeria]
When Burna Boy got his international breakthrough in 2018, new listeners could be forgiven for thinking he was primarily internationally-focused in songs. Outside was quite experimental, but the album that came after—African Giant—was a masterful nod to several traditions within Nigerian pop. Afrobeat, fuji, reggae, R&B and rap: he did it all, while carrying the weight of being the continent’s giant. A modern classic couldn’t be better written.
Papa Wemba – ‘Emotion’ [Democratic Republic of Congo]
Legendary in more ways than one, Papa Wemba embodies life at its most colorful, freshest, eccentric. Albums crafted from his distinct sensibilities tended to be sprightly, a hallway where the party begins. His sound — oscillating between the Congolese trio of rumba, soukous and ndombolo — illuminates the feeling of revelry, and Emotion takes it a hundred levels higher. A passionate showcase, its classic material comes from its singing and fine arrangement.
Cesária Évora – ‘Miss Perfumado’ [Cape Verde]
Passionate measure was the distinct mark of Cesaria Evora while she made music. Drawing from the coladeira and morna styles, which utilized sensuous guitars, her emotive vocals polishes the sound to finesse. On Miss Perfumado, every performance is a testament to Evora’s ability to relentlessly tug at the heart, with a wizened perspective of universal themes. The album achieves balance, rolling tender as Evora goes deeper into the human condition.
Sauti Sol – ‘Afrikan Sauce’ [Kenya]
It should be undisputed that Sauti Sol are among the best bands to ever come out of Africa. Carving a distinct sound that was beautifully East African in scope, their soulful records and albums occupy a high place in contemporary African music. And of their albums, none occupies a higher space than this collaborative rollercoaster, whose multiplicity of voices didn’t obscure its unifying vision. It’s everything you want in an album: mood, message and that extra magic.
Richard Bona – ‘Scenes From My Life’ [Cameroon]
Cameroonian jazz bassist and singer Richard Bona made a stellar introduction on this debut album. As most artists tend to do, that offering is infused with rich autobiographical material, carrying the musician’s ethos of storytelling and measure through its 52-minutes runtime. Suffused with languid jazz grooves, the Douala singing however gives the album a localized grounding, wherein ancient wisdom spills forth into keen contemporary knowledge.
Oliver Mtukudzi – ‘Nhava’ [Zimbabwe]
Meaning ‘carrying bag,’ in Oliver Mtukudzi’s native Zimbabwe language, this is an album of precision and calculated risks. Calculated in the sense that every meter of sound doesn’t extend past its supposed line, and the singing is masterfully evocative, in the style of the griots. Through this tradition Mtukudzi creates an album that is immersive and singular, unafraid of pulling the listener by the hand as it takes her on a sprawling journey.
Black Sherif – ‘The Villain I Never Was’ [Ghana]
Black Sherif carries the trajectory of West African music in his sound. You hear a lot of Highlife in his vocal deliveries even when the production tends to be drill-streaked, while there’s tints of Afropop influences here and there. On The Villain I Never Was, Blacko cashed in on his generational skills by putting out an album that showcased his heart and art, pristine as it is. A quintessential body of work, there’s an undying quality found here.
Fatoumata Diawara – ‘Fatou’ [Mali]
This self-titled Fatoumata Diawara album moves to the ebbs of personal life. To do so, its soundscape is intricate and intimate, often utilizing the guitar patterns of the Southern Mali Wassoulou tradition to its service. Fatou also calls upon experienced personnel such as Toumani Diabate and Guimba Kouyate to bring its rootsy, dazzling form to life.
Kenneth Mugabi – ‘People of the Land’ [Uganda]
Disarmingly soulful, the music of Kenneth Mugabi offers a wonderful immersion into the motions of being human. His 2022-released third album accounts for the manifestations of life in his native Uganda. Featuring acts from the country, the grandness of the sound and the intimacy of Mugabi’s vocals create an instantly memorable experience for the listener. It’s an album that reminds one of the social duties of the musician as well as the power of song.
Bombino – ‘Deran’ [Niger]
This album, recorded at a studio owned by the sultan of Morocco, solidified Bombino’s standing as a world-renowned guitarist and musician. The five albums that had come before were mired in deep sociopolitical concerns, as Bombino was actively involved in the life and consciousness of the Tuareg people. Deran consecrates earthy experience into ethereal sound; audacious, thoughtful and technically-astute, it showcases Bombino’s flair for the grand.
Tumi and the Volume – ‘Live At The Bassline’ [Mozambique]
Nowadays he’s known as Stogie T, but in the 2000s, it was Tumi and the Volume, the band made up of the drummer Paulo Chibanga, bass guitarist David Bergman and lead guitarist Tiago Correia-Paul, all three instrumentalists from Mozambique. The group’s debut album, Live at the Bassline emerges from the poetry slam tradition in hip-hop, streaked with jazzy instrumentation as Tumi dispenses knowledge about the life around them. A perfect body of work, it launched the group onto the forefront of hip-hop discussions and set them to become all-time greats.
Alpha Blondy – ‘Revolution’ [Côte d’Ivoire]
One of the reggae greats, it’s a blessing that Alpha Blondy is from Africa. He’s made his own peculiar experiences stand out in his music, even while utilizing the roots reggae style prevalent within his generation. As the title infers, Revolution is a searing body of work, incorporating commentary on the modern world from the standpoint of an international observer. Blondy’s music stands out for its wisdom and groove and those qualities are present here, in this stellar album which embodies the vivacity of Africa’s peak reggae period in the 1980s.
Below are the rest of the albums selected by our readers.
Bien - ‘Alusa Why Are You Topless?’ [Kenya]
Kanda Bongo Man - ‘King of Kwasa Kwasa’ [DR Congo]
Danny Thompson, Ketama, and Toumani Diabaté - ‘Songhai’ [Mali]
Petit Yero Bantinghel - ‘Mowlanan’ [Guinea]
Amadou & Mariam - ‘La Confusion’ [Mali]
Yemi Alade - ‘Mama Africa’ [Nigeria]
Senkulive and Worlasi - ‘World (The Man and The God)’ [Ghana]
Franco Luambo and Tpok Jazz - ‘Franco et le tout puissant OK Jazz’ [DR Congo]
Mohamed Mounir - ‘Shababeek’ [Egypt]
Omah Lay - ‘Boy Alone (Deluxe)’ [Nigeria]
Sauti Sol - ‘Midnight Train’ [Kenya]
Letta Mbulu - ‘There’s Music in The Air’ [South Africa]
Davido - ‘Timeless’ [Nigeria]
Yondo Sister - ‘Deviation Sexy Soukouss’ [DR Congo]
Lucky Dube - ‘Best of Lucky Dube’ [South Africa]
Os Tubarões - ‘Djonsinho Cabral’ [Cabo Verde]
Barnaba Classic - ‘Love Sounds Different’ [Tanzania]
Kabza De Small - ‘KOA’ [South Africa]
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